Kukla's Korner Hockey

Entries with the tag: all star game

The Canadiens hit the ice tomorrow night against the Boston Bruins, in what promises to be a spirited affair as players try to earn Jacques Martin’s eye and thus a spot on the roster. Of note, Jarred Tinordi and Louis Leblanc make their debuts for Montreal, with the latter sure to get a response on par with the praise lauded on Gui Latandresse in his first game years ago. Jeff Halpern will also be donning the CH for the first time in his career, and Aaron Palushaj, acquired from St. Louis last season in exchange for Matt D’Agostini, gets the start up front after scoring four goals in an intrasquad game last week. Curtis Sanford and Carey Price will split the net.

A non Habs note: good for the OHL for scrapping the all star game this season. The only reason these exist in hockey is to make money.

It’s time for the weekly edition of the Inside Hockey Radio Show with hosts James Murphy and Todd Carroll. Here’s a note from Murph, for anyone in Montreal today:

This week we are live from Montreal and the 2009 NHL All Star celebration! We will be broadcasting from the XM stand under the “All Star Jamboree Tent” across from the Bell Centre and we will be joined by numerous NHL stars in person. So if you’re in Montreal this Saturday, do drop by the “Jamboree” tent to say hello and listen to some good hockey talk.

Q. Just, I guess, a comment from you on your decision to come here this weekend. There’s been some talk that perhaps if you didn’t come, you wouldn’t be eligible to play in the Penguins’ next game.

SIDNEY CROSBY: Yeah, my plan was to come here from the moment that I decided that I wasn’t going to be able to play due to injury. I’d had a talk with Gary Bettman as to the capacity of me being here, what it was going to be.

I obviously wanted to be here, but still want the focus to be on the guys that are here, too, and not the fact that I’m coming.

I’m happy to be a part of it. I’m probably not here playing like I would like to be, but it’s the second-best thing and I’m happy to be here anyway.

Q. Pavel Datsyuk and Nick Lidstrom will be kept out of their next game on Tuesday evening. How do you feel about that? And did you and Gary discuss that if you didn’t come and take part in some of the events, that that would be the issue for you? And I think you play Wednesday next week.

If the NHL Players Association has its way, we may soon see the end of the NHL All-Star Game as an annual event.

The union, you see, has a grander plan, one in which an annual break in the NHL season would take place every February, and depending on the year it would be filled by the Olympics, a World Cup, an all-star game or perhaps a spectacular hockey convention.

“It would be a win for everybody,” said former NHL goaltender and broadcaster Glenn Healy, now the NHLPA’s director of player affairs. “We’ve got to sell the game.”

New York (December 16, 2008) – Sidney Crosby has won a Hart Trophy and an Art Ross Trophy. He has won a Winter Classic with a shootout goal and captained his team to a Stanley Cup Final. Now, he is threatening to break Jaromir Jagr’s all-time record for the most votes received in one year of NHL All-Star fan balloting.

As of 7 a.m. today, Crosby and Pittsburgh Penguins teammate Evgeni Malkin were running 1-2 among Eastern Conference forwards in the XM NHL® All-Star Fan Balloting presented by 2K Sports that will select the starting lineups for the 2009 NHL All-Star Game Jan. 25 in Montreal. With a little more than two weeks remaining until voting ends Jan. 2, Crosby had received a League-high 793,995 votes – with Malkin in hot pursuit with 715,663.

The Continental Hockey League announced Thursday its first ever All-Star Game will be held outdoors Jan. 10 at Red Square.

Team Yashin, featuring Russian-born players and led by former New York Islanders center Alexei Yashin, will take on Team Jagr, made up of players from the rest of the world and captained by former New York Rangers star winger Jaromir Jagr.

Voting on the KHL All Star game has been going on here. Photo is from Sharkspage where PJ included it on this post a couple years ago about another notable hockey game that took place in Red Square.

Detroit captain Nicklas Lidstrom extended his dominance in the balloting among defensemen by gaining over 75,000 votes last week to remain, for the second week in a row, the highest Western Conference vote-getter. Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf has a stronghold on second place, while Wings’ Brian Rafalski (135,074)is holdingoff Chicago’s Brian Campbell (133,265) for third place among defensemen.

New York (December 2, 2008) – Responding to the daunting challenge issued by the devoted fans of the Montreal Canadiens, the citizens of Pittsburgh and Penguins fans around the world are proving just how passionate they are about their heroes.

Pens forwards Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, the top two scorers in the NHL, have closed the gap considerably on the front-running Montreal threesome of Alexei Kovalev, Saku Koivu and Alex Tanguay in fan balloting to select the starting lineups for the 2009 NHL All-Star Game in Montreal Jan. 25.

As of 7 a.m. ET today, Crosby had received 320,373 votes in XM NHL® All-Star Fan Balloting presented by 2K Sports. With polls still open for another month, that moved Crosby within 65,000 votes of claiming one of the three starting spots up front for the Eastern Conference.

If the puck were dropped today, the first shift of the 57th NHL All-Star Game would look a lot like a Montreal Canadiens home game—or a latter-day version of the early All-Star games that pitted the defending Stanley Cup champs (often the Canadiens) against a team of luminaries from the rest of the League.

One major difference: Should current voting trends ultimately prevail, the Canadiens would become the first team in the history of NHL All-Star fan balloting to ice an entire starting lineup when the NHL All-Star Game faces off in Montreal’s Bell Centre Jan 25.

Young talent is, like cream, rising to the top. And like cream, it’s pretty sweet. They may struggle a bit with English, but Alexander Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Evgeni Malkin, Anze Kopitar and other 20-something foreign-born players have a language all their own. Better yet, it’s a common language, one shared by Eric Staal, Rick Nash and the cast of characters who have something to say. And it comes across loud and clear, even without poster-boy Sidney Crosby on the scene.

We saw plenty of the NHL’s future here and it, like the Georgia morning sun, is bright.

It has been very easy and convenient to rip the NHL All-Star Game for, oh, the past 20 years or so, but for at least one night, the league and its players seemed to grasp the importance of showcasing its stars by actually staging a competitive game.

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Update 9:04pm ET: The THN story above was changed since I originally linked it. An important feature near the top of the piece was Campbell’s concern about access to Eric Staal after the game. There has been some suggestion that the original article was altered. Perhaps not a big deal, but it’s worth mentioning now because the allegations prompted this official response from Mike Sundheim of the Carolina Hurricanes later in the day.

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Finally, below is a transcript from post-game Q&A’s with All Star MVP Eric Staal and goalie Tim Thomas.

With All-Star weekend upon us, we here at hockeyfights.com thought it would be pretty sweet if we took a glance at some of the notable scraps this seasons’s participants have been in. We know that not every All-Star has been in a fight over the course of their career so we’ve done our homework and singled out the players that have received a fighting major.

Today we take a look at some of those representing the Western Conference. Each player is listed in alphabetical order.

check it out… with links to video of their All Star Scraps. The Eastern Conference will be posted Sunday.

I actually bumped into Luc Robataille last night, and I haven’t seen Luc in probably 15 years. When he saw me, he said to me “I used to carry you around on my back!” because when I met him I was so little. When we spoke last night, I said “you know what? You were like my only high school friend. I never got to go to high school, so you’re like my only high school buddy!” He laughed.

note: more on Alyssa yesterday, as she promotes her line of NHL fashions at the ASG.

Boston Bruins goalie Tim Thomas participated in a NHL conference call with the media today. His current record is 15-11-3 with one shutout, and his 2.38 GAA and .927 save percentage leads all NHL goaltenders.

Here is the transcript of the Q & A session.

Q. I think for a lot of us, you’re sort of the poster boy for determined belief in yourself. It’s been a long haul, and at one point there wasn’t room in the National Hockey League for you and now they have to make room for you in the All-Star Game. Can you talk about this whole long experience that you’ve gone through?

A big part of it will be what they are calling a creative shootout, where players will be asked to perform wild and crazy shootout techniques and will be judged by a panel of celebrities, including Wilkins and Glavine, as well as some retired NHL stars. The idea is similar to a slam-dunk contest in basketball and, if it is done well, should be fun.

Yes, it is hokey and it isn’t purebred hockey, but what the hell? The whole idea of the skills night is about entertainment and in recent years, well, it hasn’t been very entertaining. So give the league, which has been working closely with the players’ association, credit for trying.

NEW YORK (Jan. 17, 2008)—Right wing Jarome Iginla of the Calgary Flames and center Vincent Lecavalier of the Tampa Bay Lightning have been named team captains for the 2008 NHL All-Star Game, Sunday, Jan. 27 at Philips Arena in Atlanta (6 p.m. ET, VERSUS, CBC, RDS, NHL Radio), the National Hockey League announced today.

Iginla, making his fourth career All-Star game appearance, will lead the Western Conference. Lecavalier, skating in his third All-Star Game, will represent the East. Each player, on-pace to record a career-high scoring total this season, was voted to the starting lineups in All-Star fan balloting.

NEW YORK (Jan. 15, 2008)— Rookie scoring leader Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks and first-year defenseman Tobias Enstrom of the All-Star host Atlanta Thrashers headline the 16 ‘NHL YoungStars’ invited to the 2008 NHL All-Star Weekend, the National Hockey League announced today.

Gonchar is not listed on its All-Star ballot. According to a league spokesperson, the hockey operations department has the final decision on the All-Star ballot, which was finalized at the end of October and based on performance from previous seasons.

Gonchar ranked second, eighth, first and second (tied) in scoring by defensemen after each of the past four seasons.

“And I would still definitely say he is underrated,” defenseman Ryan Whitney said. “But players know how good he is, and that is what is important to him.”

Gonchar is the only current defenseman to record at least 50 points in each of the past seven seasons. He has scored more goals (104) than any defenseman dating to 2000, and his 385 points during that span are second to only Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom, who has 391.

A League-high six players from the defending Eastern Conference champion and 2007-08 top-ranked Ottawa Senators have been named to the ballot in XM/NHL All-Star Fan Balloting, Presented by 2K Sports, which opens Nov. 13.

The Senators, off to the League’s best start with a 12-1-0 record, are represented by forwards Dany Heatley, Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson, the League’s top-scoring trio in both the regular season and Stanley Cup playoffs in 2006-07; defensemen Chris Phillips and Wade Redden, teammates on the Senators blueline since 1997-98; and goaltender Ray Emery, who is making his first appearance on the All-Star ballot after backstopping the Senators to the Stanley Cup Final last season.